In the wake of the surge in respiratory diseases and new JN.1 sub-variant of COVID-19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the virus is evolving and changing and urged the member states to continue with strong surveillance and sequence sharing.
'Antiviral treatment will have no change. Spike protein change may affect the immunity protection.'
The WHO's move came nearly three weeks after India objected to the B.1.617 mutant of the novel coronavirus being termed an 'Indian Variant' in media reports with the Union Health Ministry pointing out that the UN's top health organ has not used the word 'Indian' for this strain in its document.
The B-1617 variant of the coronavirus, first identified in India, has been classified as a variant of concern at the global level by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
"Omicron has been detected in all countries where we have good sequencing and it's likely to be in all countries around the world. It is quickly, in terms of its circulation, overtaking Delta. And so Omicron is becoming the dominant variant that is being detected," Kerkhove said during a virtual questions and answers session.
The fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India may start around June 22 and peak from mid to late August, a modelling study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur suggests.
The Kraken COVID-19 variant accounts for almost 41 per cent of all Covid infections.
The latest variant is the most heavily mutated version discovered so far.
Soumya Swaminathan called on governments to boost exercises on reporting actual numbers.
'Every single case is a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a brother, sister or friend'
